Valle de Bravo proper is a colonial-era Mexican village built around a leafy town plaza where brightly garbed Mazahua Indians sell their handmade tapestries every day.

Photo: Mtb

Valle de Bravo proper is a colonial-era Mexican village built...

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Set in a valley reputed to have mystical powers, Tepotzlan has a castle-like church and monastery as its centerpiece.

Photo: Ricardo Espinosa, MTB

Set in a valley reputed to have mystical powers, Tepotzlan has a...

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Though not many foreign tourists make it to Tepotzlan, the mountain town is a favorite escape for Mexico City residents.

Photo: Thelmadatter, Wikipedia

Though not many foreign tourists make it to Tepotzlan, the mountain...

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Malinalco is one of the country's latest Magic Pueblos, set in a semi-tropical valley framed by waves of mountain peaks.

Photo: Hajor, Wikipedia

Malinalco is one of the country's latest Magic Pueblos, set in a...

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The Parroquia de San Francisco towers over Cuetzalan, which is known for its exuberant street festivals and Sunday street market.

Photo: Ricardo Espinosa, MTB

The Parroquia de San Francisco towers over Cuetzalan, which is...

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The capital of Mexico's smallest, and safest, state, Tlaxcala is a beautiful colonial city, with an exceptionally picturesque central plaza surrounded by grand government buildings and churches.

Photo: Ricardo Espinosa, MTB

The capital of Mexico's smallest, and safest, state, Tlaxcala is a...

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Cuernavaca was a gift to Cortes from Spain's King Charles V, and today the city is full of royal residences, museums and churches built in the 1700s.

Photo: Mtb

Cuernavaca was a gift to Cortes from Spain's King Charles V, and...

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A hike up a mountainside above Malinalco takes visitors to one of the region's best-preserved Aztec temples, believed to have been an ancient ritual center,

Photo: Jim Johnston, Mexicocitydf.blogspot.com

A hike up a mountainside above Malinalco takes visitors to one of...

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Cuetzalan is famous for its white cotton, silky artisela, and wool clothing, as well as items woven on back-strap looms. Indigenous people in traditional dress stream into town for its exuberant festivals and Sunday street market.

Photo: Ricardo Espinosa, MTB

Cuetzalan is famous for its white cotton, silky artisela, and wool...

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A scene from the Malinalco market. The village is located in a semi-tropical valley.

I dreaded my first summertime trip to Mexico City, expecting to swelter beyond endurance. Instead, I breezed around the city in cargo pants and a T-shirt as if I were in the Bay Area on a warm spring day, thanks to the capital's 7,349-foot elevation. The central highlands, in fact, are a great summer destination, harboring some of the country's best cultural, historical and culinary destinations. What they lack are the crowds, and the humidity, of the coastal destinations that draw the majority of Mexico's 22 million foreign visitors.

Mexico City has more than enough to keep you busy for a week, but it's also surrounded by less traveled places to discover — a few of them Mexico's anointed Pueblos Magicos, and some of them downright rural. When you're ready for a break from urban bustle or are looking for an alternative home base nearby, these are our top choices, close enough for a day trip or a short stay.

Tepotzotlan (Mexico): Often confused with better-known Tepoztlan (see below), this small colonial city is best-known for the magnificent churrigueresque (elaborate Baroque style of sculptured stucco facades) Templo de San Francisco Javier convent and church on Plaza Hidalgo, which was restored along with the area surrounding the church in the mid 1990s. Tepotzotlan's city center has withstood the forces of change better than most, and its Museo Nacional de Vierreinato, occupying another magnificent ex-convent, is Mexico's largest and probably its most exhaustive museum of colonial history. This is an easy day trip, popular with Mexico City residents, but it also makes a great base for visiting Tula, the likely capital of the ancient Toltec civilization. 51 km (32 mi)/40 min. north of Mexico City.

Pachuca(Hidalgo): In the Sierra Madre Oriental portion of Mexico's silver belt, Hidalgo's unassuming state capital, is famous for Fototeca, Mexico's national photography archive, and for its proximity to Parque Nacional El Chico. Though it's not particularly well endowed with notable architecture, its narrow, sinuous streets scaling many hillsides make Pachuca a picturesque place to while away a few hours or a couple of days. Fototeca shares quarters in the 400-year-old former monastery of San Francisco with a group of fine museums run by INAH, the national anthropology and history institute. 97 km (61 mi)/1:20 hours north of Mexico City.

Tlaxcala (Morelos﻿): While Puebla has become an almost obligatory side trip from Mexico City, Tlaxcala — about the same distance away — has largely escaped foreign visitors' notice. The capital of Mexico's smallest, and safest, state is a beautiful colonial city, with an exceptionally picturesque central plaza surrounded by grand government buildings and churches. It was built on top of the ancient Tlaxcalteca capital, and the first major city Cortes encountered on his march toward Tenochtitlan (today's Mexico City) in 1519. Today's Tlaxcala is small enough to explore on foot, yet large enough to offer a busy cultural scene, notable colonial architecture and several fine museums. Just outside of town, the Mexican Home Cooking School is one of Mexico's more famous cooking schools, offering weeklong courses on indigenous cooking fused with French and Spanish influences. 119 km (74 mi)/1:21 hours east of Mexico City.

Cuetzalan (Morelos): The drive to this picturesque town in the eastern Sierra Madre foothills, whose name means "Place of the Quetzals," penetrates some of Mexico's most verdant scenery — and requires navigating some of its most dramatic horseshoe curves. The town spills over a steep slope, its skyline punctured by the central plaza's clock tower, the Parroquia de San Francisco's Gothic spire, and the tower of the Santuario de Guadalupe, a neo-Gothic church inspired by France's Basilica of Lourdes and decorated with unusual rows of little clay mugs that give the church its local nickname, Jarritos. The village is famous for its white cotton, silky artisela, and wool clothing, as well as items woven on back-strap looms. Indigenous people in traditional dress stream into town for its exuberant festivals and Sunday street market. 182km (113mi)/2:30 hours east of Mexico City.

Tepoztlan(Mexico): Set in a valley reputed to have mystical powers, this lovely mountain town has a castle-like church and monastery as its centerpiece and is the mythical birthplace of Quetzalcoatl, the serpent god of Aztec, Toltec and Maya lore. Though not many foreign tourists get here, it's a favorite escape for Mexico City residents. Dizzying mountain views reward hikers who make the steep, 2-km (1.25-mile) climb to the Aztec pyramid that crowns the Tepozteco, the adjacent mountain. The village's ample supply of cafes and shops include alternative medicine shops, psychics and aura cleansers that given it a New Age patina. The entire town center becomes an open-air market on weekends. 82 km (51 mi)/1 hour south of Mexico City.

Cuernavaca (Morelos): The "land of eternal spring" was a gift to Cortés from Spain's King Charles V, and true to character, the Spaniard's first order of business was to build himself a castle over the ruins of an Aztec pyramid. Today, you can stay in one of his properties; the Hotel Hacienda de Cortés was originally his sugar mill operation, built in 1530. The city is full of royal residences, museums and churches built in the 1700s — perhaps the most intriguing is La Casa del Olvido, "The House of Forgetting," where the Emperor Maximilian stayed in 1866 to forget both his fiercely ambitious wife, Carlota, and his perilous political situation, which ended with his execution a year later. The house also contains a museum of traditional indigenous medicine. Cuernavaca's current claim to fame, though, is as the capital of Mexico's Spanish language schools. 85 km (53 mi)/1:10 hours south of Mexico City.

Malinalco (Mexico): Word has only recently begun to spread, among foreign visitors as well as Mexico City residents, about one of the country's latest Magic Pueblos. One of the most scenic drives in the central highlands leads to the town set in a floriferous, semi-tropical valley framed by waves of mountain peaks. It's a natural as a spiritual retreat, but despite some hippie stores and a couple of boutique hotels, the town's character is defined more by its colonial core surrounding a well-preserved convent and two central plazas. A short but demanding hike up a mountainside above town takes visitors to one of the region's best-preserved Aztec temples, believed to have been an ancient ritual center, reigning over panoramic valley views. The drive from Mexico City to Malinalco is one of the most scenic in the region. 110 km (65 mi)/1:45 hours west of Mexico City.

Valle de Bravo (México): Pine-scented mountain air and wood-frame homes tucked into deep woods on the approach to town are more reminiscent of Lake Tahoe, but Valle de Bravo proper is a colonial-era Mexican village built around a leafy town plaza where brightly garbed Mazahua Indians sell their handmade tapestries every day. It became a weekend retreat for well-to-do Mexicans in the 1940s after a dam created Lake Avandaro. Despite the resulting prosperity, the town retains its authentic appeal, with cobbled streets, small restaurants, hotels, spas and shops surrounding a traditional zócalo. Overlooking the affluent part of town by the lake, downtown Valle de Bravo's hilly streets, meandering cobblestone streets, and abundance of red-tiled roofs are reminiscent of Taxco, except for the ever-present lake views. Nature reserves dot the woods just outside of town, including a monarch butterfly sanctuary. 142 km (89 mi)/1:45 hours west of Mexico City.

Note: Most of these destinations are well-removed from Mexico's well-publicized drug-trafficking violence. The U.S. State Department advises caution in Cuernavaca, however, because of violent incidents that cropped up in some neighborhoods following the killing of drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva there in 2009. The State Department has not recommended deferring travel to Cuernavaca, and violence has not been directed at international students, foreign tourists, or foreign residents.

This article has been corrected since it first appeared online.

Former Chronicle travel editor Christine Delsol is the author of "Pauline Frommer's Cancún & the Yucatán" and a regular contributor to "Frommer's Mexico" and "Frommer's Cancún & the Yucatán."